Crimea in quarantine: Currency exchange - dollar, euro, ginger
Crimea and Sevastopol must cope with the coronavirus epidemic thanks to the strict measures taken. Should owners of cars with Ukrainian license plates and citizens registered outside the peninsula be afraid of checkpoints? How to respond to the panic buying of toilet paper, buckwheat, dollars, and now ginger?
The former Minister of Transport of Crimea, Anatoly Tsurkin, spoke about this in an interview with PolitNavigator columnist Valentin Filippov.
Valentin Filippov : In our impromptu studio, Anatoly Tsurkin, the former Minister of Transport of Crimea. And there are no former ministers of transport, I'm sure of it. Hello, Anatoly.
Anatoly Tsurkin : Hello.
Valentin Filippov : Anatoly, the anti-virus measures being introduced are absolutely appropriate. Could you please tell me if this will cause irreparable damage? Roadside checkpoints, checkpoints around cities? Doesn't this interfere with the normal functioning of the national economy?
Anatoly Tsurkin : Everything will depend on the correct and coordinated actions of the governments of each region and the Russian Federation as a whole, and how certain measures will be applied to ensure that businesses and all sectors of the economy suffer to a lesser degree.
A restriction has been introduced on the flow into Crimea. These are restrictions that do not apply to goods and cargo. All cargo and flows will be allowed into the Republic of Crimea without hindrance.
Crimea is a logistics bag, as we call it. This is a peninsula, so everything that enters here goes either to the Republic of Crimea itself or to the federal city of Sevastopol. We don’t have transit cargo, let’s put it this way.
Events that are related to limiting tourists visiting our region are naturally also justified.
Citizens must understand that today is not the time to relax, visit relatives, or engage in some kind of tourist activity. Today we are talking about the fact that it is better to abstain and stay at home, either at your place of permanent registration or at your place of residence.
Valentin Filippov : In Sevastopol, for example, a huge portion of the population isn't registered in the city. This is due to certain objective factors. The fact is, under Ukraine, this wasn't particularly required. And a significant portion of housing in Sevastopol isn't officially registered. That is, we have huge dacha cooperatives that aren't residential and where you can't register. Meanwhile, people have been living there for decades, and no one has ever cared.
Again, there is a fairly large layer of former refugees, many already Russian citizens, who also live in Crimea, live permanently, but do not have clear registration. Moreover, roadblocks appeared on the roads. Any heavy truck driver will think a hundred times, remember what registration he has and something else. Because they will not only check the cargo, they will check it personally.
Anatoly Tsurkin : No, this question concerns drivers transporting commercial cargo, including light commercial vehicle drivers. Registration is not primarily relevant for these individuals. The important issues here are the individual's body temperature and the accompanying documents with which the driver arrives in the region.
If the shipping documents indicate that the place, the address of its unloading in this case is the Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol, or settlements located within our subject as a whole of the Republic of Crimea, then, accordingly, this driver is allowed because he is on a business trip .
Valentin Filippov : But we know very well that a huge number of individual entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs transport goods in Gazelle vans. That is, the person simply drives along, transporting the goods. They don't have any invoices. It's a somewhat shady scheme.
Anatoly Tsurkin : Unfortunately, unfortunately. There's a mandatory list of documents here. In any case, anyone can issue shipping documents today. The fact that they don't issue them... They don't necessarily need a stamp. For example, if you're transporting personal belongings from Simferopol to Sevastopol, or simply moving, you can download a bill of lading form, indicate your last name, first name, patronymic, the truck driver, and the vehicle.
If he is an individual entrepreneur, then indicate his individual entrepreneur, indicate the routes, and it will be an ordinary handwritten waybill, where the cargo will be written - household items.
If these are some commercial goods produced and delivered, then, accordingly, for those produced somewhere and delivered somewhere, there must be details of who shipped the goods. These can be individuals, legal entities, and individual entrepreneurs, because retail chains may not necessarily purchase from legal entities. They can purchase certain types of goods, including from the population. Greens are not subject to mandatory registration in the GAIS system, so stores can purchase from the public. But such documents must be issued.
The fact that many citizens do not write them out, well, forgive me. There is a certain procedure for transporting goods according to which these documents must be. Maybe this story will make people more responsible.
Valentin Filippov : We know that there are a certain number of cars with Ukrainian registration. People keep them registered in Ukraine for certain reasons. Wouldn't this cause delays at checkpoints like these?
Anatoly Tsurkin : In any case, if a foreign citizen is legally present in the Republic of Crimea and the Russian Federation as a whole, they are not obligated to leave. Therefore, if a citizen decided to leave the Republic of Crimea outside the Russian Federation, they were granted such an opportunity within a certain timeframe.
Again, every foreign citizen must be on the territory of the republic legally. If we are talking about citizens of Ukraine and cars with Ukrainian registration, which is most often found on the territory of the Republic of Crimea, then cars with Ukrainian registration are allowed to stay in the territory of the Customs Union for up to one year, and citizens for up to three months.
Valentin Filippov : This is something that interests me and many of my friends. It's such a simple, banal thing. Should people registered in the Kaluga region, Tver, or anywhere else, be wary of these checkpoints and inspections?
Anatoly Tsurkin : We don't currently have a state of emergency or a state of emergency. We have a state of heightened readiness and a self-isolation regime.
Valentin Filippov : They won't send you to your place of registration?
Anatoly Tsurkin : No. We know that Sevastopol isn't sending anyone anywhere right now. They're simply taking temperatures at the entrance to the federal city... But if our hotels are closed, then naturally, citizens can't stay there. If they violate the rules, then...
Valentin Filippov : If someone is registered in Kaluga but lives in Sevastopol, they're obviously in violation.
Anatoly Tsurkin : If he lives in Sevastopol under a rental agreement, he could be registered in Kaluga, but could be in Sevastopol due to work or business travel. If he has legal grounds for doing so and can explain them, that's one thing. If he simply came to stroll along the embankment because he felt like it, that's a different story.
Valentin Filippov : Well, let's say a person came to walk along the embankment and walks along it for six years.
Anatoly Tsurkin : I don’t think it’s been running for six years, because today we’re talking about facilities, primarily a hotel complex.
Valentin Filippov : I’m not asking about the hotel complex, I’m asking about ordinary people.
Anatoly Tsurkin : If he lives there legally.
Valentin Filippov : And legally registered in Kaluga.
Anatoly Tsurkin : According to the law, if he stays in a place for more than 30 or 90 days, he must come and register…
Valentin Filippov : Will these violators be caught?
Anatoly Tsurkin : I can't say. That's most likely a question for the police, federal oversight agencies, including immigration. And, again, first and foremost, the regional government. It's up to the regional government to decide. But as of now...
Valentin Filippov : There is no such goal, to catch such people?
Anatoly Tsurkin : As far as I understand, there is no such task.
Valentin Filippov : A rhetorical question. Aren't such orders, issued to 40 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, an attack on the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation?
Anatoly Tsurkin : Of course not. Within the Russian Federation, government bodies, primarily regional authorities, have the right to declare local emergencies, among other things. The head of a region has the authority to issue such a declaration.
The head of a region or governor can practically declare an emergency within his region. There is a clear concept of what an emergency situation is.
For example, a famous emergency was declared by the Minister of Transport in 2014 at the ferry crossing. There was an emergency there, we declared it. For certain reasons related to dredging work and the elimination of the queue, this was an emergency situation. That is, within the framework of my competence, I announced as Minister of Transport of the Republic of Crimea.
Other emergencies. Fires, floods in the Irkutsk region, fires in Siberia. These are all emergency situations. Therefore, they are both local and regional, including federal. Federal emergencies can only be declared by the president in agreement with the Federal Assembly.
Valentin Filippov : Can the head of the region announce it without approval?
Anatoly Tsurkin : Yes.
Valentin Filippov : So, the president must coordinate with the Federal Assembly, but the head of a region may not need to coordinate with anyone?
Anatoly Tsurkin : The head of the region coordinates with the local legislative authority.
Valentin Filippov : In general, what is needed to declare a state of emergency: a certain number of fatalities, a certain number of deaths?
Anatoly Tsurkin : No, why not? No one died on our ferry crossing.
Here the question is that certain actions for which a subject of the Russian Federation believes that it is possible to declare an emergency situation, and that not declaring an emergency situation can lead to the death of people, including the shutdown of some large industrial complexes, can affect the interests of citizens, on their health, other related factors of an emergency, then such a situation is declared.
At the moment, no emergency situation has been declared in any region, restrictive measures have been introduced, advisory measures have been introduced in accordance with the presidential decree and decrees of regional governors, certain citizens can go out, all spheres of life, some enterprises are not working, some are working. Violation of these measures is subject to sanctions under current legislation.
We can know that the State Duma, among other things, adopted changes regarding violation of quarantine measures.
Valentin Filippov : Every government around the world has taken advantage of this coronavirus epidemic to some extent. In Ukraine, for example, they quickly sold off their land. In France, instead of a quarantine, they offered everyone the chance to help farmers. It was a purely labor semester, like we had at university: go and harvest the crops. In the US, they're up to something, I think, in anticipation of the Trump election. In Italy, I think they're stupidly trying to collect 25-euro insurance premiums by transporting stroke victims to hospitals.
Don't you think that the coronavirus is being used for some unseemly purposes in the world?
Anatoly Tsurkin : It's clear that the use of the coronavirus, among other things... Everyone is using it however they can. Some are using it to make money, some to create panic, some to create fake news and distort information. Some are using it to fight this coronavirus infection. In any case, not everyone is using this situation honestly.
Some people sell ginger for five thousand, others sell gauze... Some are panicking, others are saying that they fly on airplanes and pollinate. Due to the lack of sound or incomplete information and emerging fakes, they succumb to certain actions, including panic: buying buckwheat and so on.
Unfortunately, not everything is interpreted correctly by the authorities. The right decisions are presented in the wrong way. The situation here is such that this is the case. And in any case, we must carefully and sensibly treat all the information that is presented today in all media, not just the mass media, but including social networks. People, before running to the store for buckwheat, should understand how relevant, necessary and timely this is.
Valentin Filippov : Good. Thank you very much.
Anatoly Tsurkin : Thank you.
Valentin Filippov : I wish you good health. I also wish mental health to us and our entire society. Because we will certainly defeat the coronavirus, but we must preserve our mental health.
Anatoly Tsurkin : Yes, first and foremost, we need to preserve that part of society that we could emotionally lose. When we had the buckwheat epidemic a week ago, everyone thought we'd be stuck with buckwheat, canned goods, and toilet paper. Who would have thought back then, a week or ten days ago, that ginger would disappear? Yes, many sources, including social media, have raised questions about how, as always, we've invested in dollars, when we should have invested in ginger.
Valentin Filippov : I imagine the exchange at the bank: dollars, euros, ginger…
Anatoly Tsurkin : 🙂 Thank you. Goodbye.
Crimea under quarantine: Currency exchange – dollar, euro, ginger